


Angelfish

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, F/F, Fluff, Humanstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-15
Updated: 2013-05-15
Packaged: 2017-12-11 22:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Aranea takes Meenah out for a treat</p>
            </blockquote>





	Angelfish

Before you stepped out of the car, you pulled down the mirror to check your makeup one last time. You notice the humidity is already making your hair frizzy. There’s nothing you can do about that now though. Besides, it still looks better than it usually does.

Somewhat satisfied (or at least not totally disheartened), you open the car door only to be greeted by a slight drop in the temperature. At least there’s no wind to mess your hair up any more than it is. You really hope this change in weather is temporary though; you didn’t bring a cardigan. You look down at your legs to make sure that you didn’t somehow get dirt (or worse, runs) on your bright white tights. Everything checks out. You pull your skirt up just an inch anyway.

Finally, you think you’re ready, or at least that you need to get a move on. Your dark blue pumps clack on the pavement as you walk to the house’s front door. You start thinking that you look ridiculous. Yes, you definitely look ridiculous. Red, white, and blue? Honestly, were you high when you picked this out? The red flower headband doesn’t even match the red of your skirt, and the black collar of your blouse looks out of place. But you couldn’t afford new shoes and these are your nicest ones, and you haven’t worn the flower in a long time.

You ring the doorbell before your doubts start getting any worse. You’re surprised when you hear footsteps almost immediately.

The door opens to reveal Meenah’s smirking face. “Yo.” Her smile drops slightly as she looks you up and down. “I thought you said casual,” she says as she looks down at her own outfit. You roll your eyes, thinking she was just making fun of you, but when you see her expression you think she’s serious. You decide to take the opportunity to look her up and down; a monochromatic striped tee proclaiming that “Art is money and money is art,” half tucked into a ripped pair of black short short _short_ shorts; her favorite fuchsia sneakers that don’t match anything she (or anyone else) owns; her signature braids; a gold studded bangle, with gold painted nails to match.

“I did. You look nice,” you say, and you mean it. The shorts really show off her long legs, and the gold looks good against her dark skin. Seeing her nails makes you wonder if you should’ve touched up your own French tips.

You’re glad to see Meenah’s smile come back. “You look tall.” You look down at your outfit again. On second (or maybe third, or fourth, or fortieth) thought, you may be a little overdressed. It’s too late now though, so you return your gaze to your date.

“So, you’re ready?” By way of answering, she steps down from the threshold and slams the front door behind her. You take the stairs as she hops over the porch railing and beats you to your car.

As you buckle your seatbelt, you almost turn to tell Meenah to do hers. You see that she already has, though she’s sitting on top of the belt rather than under it. It looked like she buckled the seat before she even got in the car. On one hand you don’t like the idea of her not wearing it, but you like that she remembered your car is one of those that starts beeping when the passengers don’t buckle up.

You reach into the center console for one last thing before you start the car. “Here, wear this,” you say, pulling out a blindfold.

She looks like she might either argue or laugh. After a moment, she does both. “Jesus, Serket, no.”

“Oh, come on! I wanted to surprise you.” You hold it out at her and pout, hoping that you’ll get your way for once. She looks down at it as you wave it at her, then back at your face, and back at the blindfold again. Eventually she judges that you won’t start the car until she puts it on. You see her roll her eyes just before covering them. She finishes tying it just before you back out into the street. With that done, you finally stop worrying so much about how you look.

You’re both unusually quiet for about thirty seconds. You thought she’d be asking all sorts of questions, asking for hints so she can figure it out and you’ll let her take the blindfold off. Instead she’s silent and still. At first you think maybe you misjudged how much she likes surprises.

It’s not until you reach the end of her street and turn right that she makes any noise at all. She lets out a groan and rolls her head back dramatically. “We’re just going to your house,” she whines, and you realize she hasn’t been talking because she’s been keeping track of your position. She must know where you are now; if you had turned left, you’d be going into town.

You pass the city limits and speed up a little. “We’re not just going to my house.”

“Yeah, whatever.” There’s no use arguing with her if she doesn’t believe you now. You decide to just keep driving and wait for her to catch on.

She’s so thoroughly convinced of her accuracy that she doesn’t bother keeping track anymore. You pass the turn to your house and Meenah doesn’t say anything for five minutes.

“Yo, I think you missed the turn.”

“I didn’t,” you say, stopping at a four way intersection. “I’m going the right way.”

“Oh, are we going on the freeway?” You turn to check if anyone is coming from your right and you see Meenah holding the cloth over her forehead, looking around to get her bearings.

You don’t know if you want to sigh or laugh. “No peeking!” You try to bat her hands away from the blindfold, but she puts it back on herself. At least she believes you again when you drive on. She falls silent again and starts trying to keep up with your location again.

The rest of the drive isn’t too much different from that. Every five minutes or so she’d fire a few questions at you and beg for hints. Once you caught her peeking again. You wouldn’t be surprised if she got away with peeking another time or two.

It takes you the better part of an hour to reach your destination due to traffic, but when you do the parking lot is surprisingly empty for four in the afternoon. You’re able to park close to the front. You were going to remove Meenah’s blindfold for her, but she does it herself as soon as you cut the engine.

She recognizes the building after a moment. “Oh my god, I haven’t been here since I was like four!” You step out of the car at the same time as her, making sure to grab your purse and pull the strap over your shoulder. You mentally pat yourself on the back as Meenah bounces on the balls of her feet a few times.

As you lock the car and put away the keys, you pull the tickets out of your purse and hold on to them tightly. It would be a shame if you lost them now.

“Ready?” You hold out your free hand for her and wiggle your fingers. She grabs it with a grin. Your heels make you a little slower than her, so you have a bit of trouble keeping up. You wouldn’t dare ask her to slow down though. She looks genuinely excited.

Once you pass through the front doors to the aquarium, there’s nobody in line to enter. You flash the tickets and you’re allowed through quickly. You put one in your purse as a keepsake and give the other to Meenah. You hope she’ll keep hers too.

You’re kind of lucky to have her with you, or else you wouldn’t know where to start. She leads you along excitedly through glass hallways. There’s fish of every color and size swimming by you, or opposite you, or away from the glass altogether. She makes her usual crude jokes even as she watches, and you don’t even chide her for it since you’re pretty much alone.

For at least twenty minutes, Meenah mostly ignores you in favor of the fish. You’re okay with that though. You were counting on it, actually. It means you’re not still worrying about your hair. It also means you get to watch her watching the fish. You love watching this side of her. Though you like her all the time, it’s a nice change of pace. She’s adorable when she’s not crass.

She grins, and that makes you grin. You really are enjoying this date, even though you’re barely giving the fish half your attention. It occurs to you that Meenah is the reason you’re so happy right now.

You feel lighter when you start to really think about that. You’re happy just being with Meenah. She must like you too, or she would have turned you down when you asked her out (and probably quite harshly). Occasionally she’ll drop your hand to run ahead, but she’ll pick it up again almost as soon as you catch up. And when she sees something especially interesting, she’ll always point it out to you. She showed you the angelfish that you couldn’t see, and the clownfish with the tiny fin just like Nemo, and the salmon laying eggs in the water.

With half an hour until closing time, Meenah decides to head for the touch pools for a bit before you take a different route back to the exit. You feel bad that she has to rush, but she insists “We’ve got plenty of time, girl. It’s cool.”

There’s someone there when you get there, which surprises you until you see that he’s an employee. He smiles and shows you both the starfish and bat rays and sea urchins. You reach to touch them with almost as much interest as Meenah.

As you lean over the pool, she splashes water at you playfully. You yelp and yank your hand out of the pool. She laughs at your reaction. You cross your arms over your chest.

“Aw, come on Serks. I was just playing.” You know she was. You’re just overreacting for the fun of it. Before you can give in to that face, you stick your nose in the air and turn away.

You take two steps, and then Meenah pounces on you from behind. You almost cry out again from the shock of it.

Her fingers move quickly and lightly across your ribs. At first you’re confused, until you realize she’s trying to tickle you. (It’s probably her way of getting you to laugh again and forgive her.) “I’m not ticklish,” you say, and you fail to keep the amusement out of your voice. You turn to face her with a smile.

The first thing you notice is her wide, hopeful eyes crinkle as she smiles back at you. The second is that she hasn’t let go. The next is a breeze on your chest. You look down and see that crossing your wet arms got your shirt wet too. You stare at it for a moment, and contemplate just crossing your arms again and not uncrossing them until your shirt is dry.

Meenah doesn’t let that happen. She hugs you close to her, squeezing almost so tightly that you can’t breathe, before finally letting go and looking down at her own shirt.

“That didn’t work as well as I thought it would,” she mutters as she pulls on it. It’s barely wet at all.

“I do feel a little dryer though,” you lie.

She raises an eyebrow at you, and you eventually burst into laughter. “Are we done here, then?”

She nods and takes your hand again. “Yeah, we’re done.” You let her take the lead again. Instead of pulling you down more glass hallways, she pulls you into another hug. “We going out to dinner too?”

“Well, that was the plan. Do you want to?”

“Yeah, it’s on me.” She pecks you on the cheek and drops her arms again, only to take back your hand and start leading you before you can gather your wits.

You just start shaking your head, unable to believe Meenah would offer to pay for anything. “No, I’m paying for this date,” is all you can manage.

“You already paid for the tickets, and they’re like thirty bucks apiece. I can handle the food.” She pulls her wallet out of her pocket to show you. You thought you’d specifically told her not to bring it.

“I saved up for today though,” you admit. You didn’t have to save long, but still. “I’d like to spend it on you.”

“Good. Get me some diamond earrings or something then. I’ll get dinner.” Her tone clearly says it’s the end of the conversation. With a feeling she’ll never offer to pay for dinner again, you drop the argument with a sigh.

The bulk of the rest of your time in the aquarium is spent trying to decide where you’ll go for dinner. Occasionally she’ll point out another interesting fish, though with about fifteen minutes to closing time she doesn’t linger anywhere.

It’s not until the last of the fish are at least thirty feet behind you that Meenah says “Do you think we can do this again sometime?”

Even though the tickets are thirty dollars apiece and the drive is forty five minutes and you’re only mildly interested in fish, you tell her yes. You mean it too. You’d love to come here again with her, if it’s what she wants.

She thanks you with another kiss, this time on the lips. You both head out to the car grinning and holding each other slightly closer because of the cool evening. Her smile is worth every penny you spent on those tickets, plus the money you’ll spend next time you come.

Next time. You think you really love the sound of that. You really hope there’ll be a next time.


End file.
